Fall 2023
Professor(s):
Julian Cardenas Garcia (RESEARCH PROFESSOR)
Credits: 3
Course Areas: Energy, Natural Resources and Environmental Law
International Law
Time: 2:30p-4:00p TTH Location: 220
Course Outline: This course features the crossroads between geopolitics and the law of the oil and gas industry.
The 2022 invasion of Ukraine by Russia has highlighted energy security concerns in a global economy that still relies heavily on the use of hydrocarbons. Under a new system of balance of power, it is necessary to review the law that governs energy transactions including contracts, international treaties, and transnational sanctions regulation to deal with energy transition and energy security policies that affect the performance of energy operations. From Houston, a world capital of energy diplomacy, we will study the legal instruments that have been built to govern inter-state and state-corporate relations in the oil industry, providing to the students political and economic background for investment strategies of the oil industry.
Readings for this course will be focused on international treaties and public international law applicable to the oil and gas industry. We will also study selected chapters on energy geopolitics such as:
1)The Energy World is Flat by Daniel Lacalle and Diego Parrilla
2)The Quest: Energy, Security, and the Remaking of the Modern World by Daniel Yergin
3)The End of Power by Moises Naim
4)Crude Volatility: The History and the Future of Boom-Bust Oil Prices by Robert McNally"
5) The New Map, by Daniel Yergin
Course Syllabus: Syllabus
Course Notes: (Face-to-Face) The UH registration system instruction mode for this course is listed in parenthesis. After student registration opens, there may be instruction mode changes to this course up through two weeks before the first day of classes for the term, but notice of such changes will be sent to then-registered students. For this instruction mode, instructors and students are expected to normally be physically present in the classroom. If the course has a final examination, it will be in a classroom requiring your physical presence. Other assessment, such as a mid term exam, may also be in a classroom. Whether this instructor will offer “remote presence” (starting a zoom meeting from the podium computer to enable student remote access on an occasional basis) for part or all of the semester is not known, but students should not rely on an expectation that remote presence will be available.
Prerequisites:
First Day Assignments:
Final Exam Schedule:
This course will have:
Exam:
Paper:
Satisfies Senior Upper Level Writing Requirement: No
Experiential Course Type: No
Bar Course: No
DistanceEd ABA: No
Pass-Fail Student Election: Available